Trump increases tariffs on China and cancels meeting with Xi Jinping

i'm considering a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States," said Donald Trump on Truth, accusing China of "hostile acts" over new restrictions on rare earths exports. The American president (together with Xi Jinping) has thus chosen to screw up the trade truce agreements confirmed only a few weeks ago in a phone call between Washington and Beijing. Trump has also effectively cancelled the meeting with Xi scheduled for the end of October, explaining that the summit between the two major global powers no longer makes sense: "Some very strange things," he said, "are happening in China! In two weeks I'm supposed to meet President Xi at Apec in South Korea, but now there doesn't seem to be any reason to do that.

The dollar fell sharply against the Japanese yen, the euro and the pound after the Republican leader's statements. While Wall Street and European stock exchanges also immediately turned negative. "We are considering a massive increase in tariffs, but there are many other countermeasures that we are also seriously considering," Trump remarked, adding that China is "becoming very hostile" on rare earths and is holding the world "captive" by restricting access to metals and magnets used in electronics, chips, lasers and other industrial technologies.

In recent days, China had actually tightened restrictions on exports of key materials like rare earths. And yesterday, it made it known that additional port fees would be introduced to U.S. ships starting October 14. "It was a real surprise, not just to me, but to all the leaders of the free world," the U.S. president said again, referring to "letters sent by Beijing to countries around the world, threatening export controls on every single item of production that has to do with rare earths, and anything else they can think of."

After long negotiations, at least two postponements and many mutual threats, the United States and China seemed to have agreed on a truce - necessarily armed - that would hold until at least the end of the year: Trump and Xi had decided to meet after having defined a general framework of understanding that included Taiwan, TikTok, artificial intelligence, rare earths and international trade. Now everything has broken down and it is once again a head-on clash.

"No one," Trump attacked, "has ever seen anything like this. It would block markets and make life difficult for virtually every country in the world, especially China. We have been contacted by other countries that are extremely angry about this great trade hostility, which has come out of nowhere." According to the White House, "the letters were particularly inappropriate because they were sent in the days when, after three thousand years of chaos, there will be peace in the Middle East.